


Wait, he's flirting??

by Thugthe8



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, Hozi, M/M, Soonhoon - Freeform, are they flirting?? just friends??, jihoon is an oblivious boi who is having feelings, mingyu is here to help, soonyoung is sunshine but like what's new, tags are difficult lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-05-09 03:25:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14708208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thugthe8/pseuds/Thugthe8
Summary: Soonyoung is weird, but Jihoon thinks he's a good friend. They're just friends though, the hand holding is just platonic or whatever... right?? Apparently Mingyu is the only one who knows the difference between friends and flirts, and Jihoon has no idea what he's doing anymore.





	Wait, he's flirting??

**Author's Note:**

> Helo this is my first time posting on ao3 and lord knows I don't actually know how to use this website so please bear with me and enjoy this garbage stuff

Jihoon was okay with being more on the introverted side. He had a friend circle, he had schoolwork and music to keep him occupied, and his roommate Mingyu was extroverted enough for the both of them. Jihoon wasn't lonely, he insisted.

“Hi!”  
Jihoon jolts, snapping the lead of his pencil as he dates a new page in his notebook. He hates this required Fundamentals of Biology class, he hates the professor for always assigning projects that take way too long, and he hates that it’s his earliest class. It should be an unwritten rule that no university courses can start before 9 AM.  
“I’m Soonyoung, you’re Jihoon right? I think we’re supposed to be partners for the next project.” The boy who had startled him was speaking far too quickly for Jihoon to process anything at this hour of the morning.  
“Um, cool. I’m Jihoon. But you knew that.”  
Soonyoung unleashes a blinding smile, and Jihoon feels like he’s been annihilated by a ray of sunlight.  
“Yeah. Is your dorm okay for collaborating? I’m in a suite with 5 other guys and it’s kind of a disaster all the time…” he begins rambling about toothpaste and nunchucks. Jihoon can’t take this much energy so early in the morning.  
“Yeah it’s cool. We can figure it out later, yeah?” Jihoon knows he’s being a little rude interrupting, but he didn’t have time to get coffee this morning. Besides, this Soonyoung doesn't seem like he's ever been unhappy in his life.  
“Cool! I’ll get in touch with you later then. Bye, Ji!” Soonyoung beams at him again and leaves a dumbstruck Jihoon at his desk. No one has called him Ji since elementary school. It’s been a weird morning.

The only part of Jihoon’s schedule worse than Biology was lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Every person he knew on campus had some sort of class at 11:30, leaving Jihoon to fend for himself in the dining hall. He wouldn’t admit eating alone bothered him, but in a dining hall full of socializing people it felt awkward to sit in the corner on his own. Making friends is hard, though, and Jihoon decides he’d rather be lonely in the corner with his oranges than talk a stranger.  
But when he spots Soonyoung eating by himself too, he wonders if he should make a move and sit with him. Mingyu would be so proud of him if he actually talked to someone new, and Soonyoung was certainly too nice to reject him or anything. Jihoon resolves to be courageous. He’s got this.  
Turns out he doesn’t got this, because he’s standing behind Soonyoung with his mouth open and nothing is coming out. It’s awkward.  
It gets more awkward when Soonyoung actually notices him standing there.  
“Hey, did you wanna sit with me?”  
Wow, it sounded so easy for him to say that. Jihoon is salty that he wasn’t gifted with Soonyoung’s social skills.  
“Um, if you don’t mind. We should probably get to, uh, know each other for our project. I guess,” Jihoon’s eyebrows furrow at his own lame reasoning.  
“Good idea! I never have anyone to eat lunch with on these days anyways. Now we’re lunch buddies!!” Soonyoung says, all the while stacking his Oreos into a tower. Jihoon isn’t sure why he has so many Oreos or why Soonyoung is making such an intricate tower, but he doesn’t question it.  
“What’s your major?”  
“Engineering,” Soonyoung rolls his eyes. “But I spend all my time dancing. I’d switch majors if I could, but I’m a little tied up.”  
“Well you seem to be good at… tower-building?” Jihoon gestures to the Eiffel Oreo tower as he peels an orange.  
“I’m actually just terrible at sitting still. You should see me on caffeine, that’s a good one.”  
“Are you telling me you’re actually that energetic during bio every morning? Like without coffee?”  
“Yup!! But this one time time I drank three cups of black coffee by accident...”

Jihoon is amazed. He’s never held such a good conversation with a new friend before. There was no talk of the weather, no awkward silence, no desperation to think of a new topic for conversation. He tells Mingyu about his newest acquaintance.  
“Oh my god, you actually made a friend… I’m so proud!!” Mingyu pretends to wipe away a tear.  
“I’m not that anti-social, Mingyu.”  
“Says the guy who skips parties to work on Garageband until 4 AM.”  
“You only go to those parties because that Wonwoo guy goes to some of them. Anyways, Soonyoung is coming over tomorrow night for the project.”  
“Wow, you’re moving fast there buddy, I’ll clear out so you two can have some fun,” Mingyu wiggles his eyebrows excessively. Jihoon rolls his eyes in exasperation.

Soonyoung comes over, and things are incredibly normal. He makes jokes, Jihoon laughs, and they get some work done. Things feel right with Soonyoung, Jihoon thinks. Weeks pass, and Soonyoung continues to crash Jihoon’s dorm despite their completion of the project. Jihoon learns about Soonyoung’s part-time job as a dance instructor, his fights with his parents about changing his major, and his weird obsession with Star Wars. Soonyoung, in turn, learns about Jihoon’s late night lyric writing sessions, his collection of Skitty plushies, and is pleased to discover how cute and soft Jihoon gets when he’s sleepy.  
Mingyu walks in one day to find Jihoon in his rolling chair playing one of his songs off the computer, with Soonyoung resting his chin on top of Jihoon’s hair. It’s adorable, actually, and Mingyu is ready for the ship to sail.

“How are things going with Soonyoung?”  
“Fine?”Jihoon raises an eyebrow. “I don’t know what ‘things’ you’re referring to, though.”  
“Come on, you guys flirt more than anyone I know, and I know a lot of people,” Mingyu gives him a knowing look.  
“We don’t flirt, Mingyu. We’re friends.”  
“Okay, fine. But he’s hot right?”  
“I mean, I won’t argue with that. Objectively speaking.”  
“Also you guys cuddle every week on movie night. And you wear his shirts because they’re big and you like it. And you talk like you’ve been married for years-”  
“Okay! I get it, thank you,” Jihoon’s ears are red. “...Do you actually think he’s flirting though-”  
“Did you listen to anYTHINg I just said hyung? And he calls you Ji! No one does that, man. I think you guys are into each other. You gotta start noticing the signs!!!”  
Jihoon nods, resolving to start picking up on these things.

“Are you gonna eat your cherry?”  
Soonyoung was treating Jihoon to ice cream sundaes at the campus dairy bar. He insisted on paying, and Jihoon felt guilty, but he refused to let a perfectly good cherry go to waste. Soonyoung picked up the cherry and held it above Jihoon.  
“Open up!”  
Jihoon flushes red as he lets Soonyoung feed him. Ever since his talk with Mingyu, he had started noticing. He noticed now how often Soonyoung would grab his hand to drag him somewhere but forget to let go, or when he’d smile widely and ruffle Jihoon’s hair. But it never seemed romantic, and Jihoon had no idea what to think anymore.  
“I have a dance showcase in like, two weeks. It’s crunch time! But also my legs hurt,” Soonyoung stretched and yawned.  
“Make sure you rest, Soonyoung. Your endless energy supply scares me, cause someday you’re gonna run out of steam and end up like me.”  
“Like a zombie, you mean,” Soonyoung grins, and feeds Jihoon more of his ice cream. “Don’t you worry about me, Mr. Late-Night DJ. I’ll manage.”  
“If you overwork yourself I’ll fight you,” Jihoon threatens, but he looks so soft with his hair in his face and sweatshirt three sizes too big.  
“Okay Ji,” Soonyoung ruffles his hair affectionately. 

The next movie night, Jihoon finds that he’s now very aware of Soonyoung’s every move. They’re tucked side by side on his bed like always with laptop playing Dr. Strange, but Jihoon is thinking about how his arm is right up against Soonyoung’s. Tentatively, he leans his head on Soonyoung’s shoulder, just to test out the waters. Soonyoung glances down at him, and with a faint smile slides his arm around Jihoon’s shoulders. Jihoon has trouble remembering to breathe.

Jihoon knows Soonyoung’s showcase is coming up this week, but they hadn’t talked about it much at all. Jihoon hadn’t really seen Soonyoung dance before other than a lot of Sistar choreography competitions in their dorm, but he knew Soonyoung had some serious talent beyond that of dancing to Touch My Body.  
He drags Mingyu to the auditorium with him, in case he requires emotional support after what he’s about to see. Nothing, however, could have saved him from those leather pants.  
Soonyoung dominates the stage like nothing Jihoon has ever seen. He can't look away for a second, even if his blood boils with jealousy as he dances with Yuju, one of the prettiest girls on campus. Even Mingyu is amazed by Soonyoung’s dance skills, not to mention how good he looks in that red and black leather jacket.  
After the showcase, Mingyu goes off and leaves Jihoon to wait outside the performance hall in the cold. Nearly everyone else has left the building when Soonyoung finally comes out, dance bag slung across his chest. 

“That was amazing,” Jihoon walks up to him, happy to congratulate his friend.  
Soonyoung stands frozen, staring at Jihoon with wide eyes.  
Jihoon pauses, confused. “Um, what’s up?”  
“You… you came. To watch me?”  
“Of course I came,” Jihoon says incredulously.  
They stare at each other, before Soonyoung swiftly steps forward and pulls Jihoon into a hug, tight and warm and emotional. Jihoon reaches his arms around his back gently as Soonyoung buries his face into Jihoon’s neck. They stay there for a bit, Soonyoung is warm, and Jihoon can hardly breathe.  
“Thank you… for coming,” Soonyoung finally murmurs into Jihoon’s ear. He pulls back, and looks down at Jihoon intensely. “My parents… never really came to watch me dance growing up. So I- it means a lot that you came, Ji.” Soonyoung swallows and looks away.  
Jihoon grabs Soonyoung’s hand, lacing their fingers together shyly.  
“Let’s go home.” Jihoon gives his hand a little tug.  
Jihoon falls asleep in Soonyoung’s arms that night.

“Oh my god, I’m so over my mom.”  
“What’d she say?” Jihoon doesn’t look up from the track on his computer. Soonyoung is flopped on Jihoon's bed, texting his parents.  
“Still a big no no on switching majors. And they want to know why I don’t have a girlfriend yet, yikes.”  
Jihoon’s heart sinks, but this is his chance to do some digging on Soonyoung’s flirting habits. Yes, Jihoon still has no idea what constitutes as flirting and what’s platonic, but he’s trying.  
“Why don’t you ask out Yuju, you guys danced well together.”  
“Nah, she’s too tall. I like the super short ones,” Soonyoung says, flipping over onto his stomach.  
“Okay, well… dark hair or light hair?”  
“I like black the best. More than all the other colors of the rainbow.”  
Jihoon barely stops himself from touching his own dark hair impulsively, and tries not to think about how his hair had indeed met most colors in the spectrum.  
“You’d probably want to date a dancer though, right?”  
Soonyoung sighs. “Honestly, I’ve kinda always been more into the singers. The musical ones.”  
“Oh… well someone outgoing would probably be a good match for you too…”  
“Actually, I like the ones that hole themselves up in their rooms until the early morning hours and don’t know how to function in social situations.”  
Jihoon feels like he’s being toyed with, and he doesn't like it. He turns his chair around and gets up, glaring at Soonyoung who’s already staring back at him.  
“What are you doing Soonyoung?” Jihoon sighs in frustration.  
Soonyoung stands up and walks towards Jihoon, in fact he doesn’t stop until Jihoon is trapped between the desk and his arms. He stares down at Jihoon, the same intense look on his phase from the night after the dance showcase. Jihoon slowly meets his gaze.  
And then they’re kissing, and it’s soft but intense and everything Jihoon didn’t know he needed. Soonyoung’s hands slide around his waist as Jihoon pulls him closer by his belt loops. There are fingers in hair, hands grabbing shirts, and heavy breaths when they pull apart.  
“You’re so cute, Ji,” Soonyoung beams at Jihoon’s pink cheeks.  
“Keep calling me cute and we won’t do that again.”  
“You’re the boss,” Soonyoung throws his hands up in surrender before Jihoon pulls him back down to meet his lips.

Jihoon is surprised that not much changes when he and Soonyoung begin dating. They hold hands more, and kiss, but their dynamic doesn’t change and Jihoon is happy about that.  
“Wait, you really couldn’t tell when I was flirting with you?”  
“Yes, we’ve established that I am terrible at romance, please drop it,” Jihoon says as they leave Biology. “We just got along so well that I thought we were weirdly destined to be great friends, or whatever. But then Mingyu said you were flirting and then I decided we should be boyfriends.”  
“And yet, somehow I recall that I did all the flirting and made all the moves. I don’t think you’d recognize flirting if it hit you in the face.”  
“Where you flirting when you took your shirt off that one time and threw it because that actually did hit me in the face.”  
“Come on that- wait is this supposed to be you flirting with me right now? Are you flirting with me, Lee Jihoon?”  
“Mhm yes definitely.”  
"Your delivery needs some work."  
"Why don't you evaluate my delivery on this one: 'Shut up, Soonyoung.' "   
Soonyoung throws his arm around Jihoon’s shoulders and yanks him closer.  
“You're terrible at this, that wasn't flirtatious at all. But I love you anyways, Ji.”  
“Love you too, Soon.”

**Author's Note:**

> Trash ending ik anyways catch me on tumblr @thugthe8 I post bad memes!!! Thank you for reading I really am just a beginner and genuinely appreciate anyone who takes the time to read my nonsense!!! <3


End file.
